Family Farm Fun

Cash Cow Piñata

Industrial farming is known, but not widely known, for its ability to externalize its costs. For example: School Tax Credits allow farmers to pay the taxes needed to placate a powerful teachers union, and in return are paid 50-100% of that back from additional taxes levied on an unknowing public. The next time you are told how important industrial farming is economically, ask yourself: How can promoting an industrial model that requires subsidies and tax breaks at every point to remain viable benefit us economically? It’s not just the money: Modern industrial farming methods are draining aquifers of increasingly valuable fresh water [that took tens of thousands of years to fill] to produce the agricultural products it sells to foreign countries for chump change. As we ship out our country’s valuable natural resources of fertile land and clean fresh water in the form of agricultural products, what do we receive for our children in return? Just the rich getting richer.